 5-0-2. Okay, it's 5-0-2. It's Monday all day long. I hope you guys got the password. I'm Susan L. Parks. This is Watch Me Work, Monday the 29th of June, and we are here to hang out with you and cheer you on as you, you know, walk the path of your work, whether it's creative or not, whatever. We're here to support you. So what we're gonna do, what are we gonna do? Where's my timer? There it is. What we're gonna do is we're gonna work together for 20 minutes and then we're going to talk about your work and your creative process for the remainder of the time until around six o'clock. And if you have questions to ask me about your work and your creative process, you can ask Audrey how to get in touch. Audrey. SLP and thank you all for the password shenanigans of today. If you are in the Zoom, all you need to do to ask a question is to click on the raise your hand button. It's in a participant tab, likely at the bottom of your screen on a laptop or the top of your own tablet or an iPad. I feel like a flight attendant today. And if you're watching on HowlRound.tv, all you need to do is tweet at us at Watch Me Work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound. H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. Or you can tweet at that public feeder NY or write it to us in our Instagram. And that's all. Thank you. Put your masks on before you put them on for your children or for your friends. Here's 20 minutes. Here we go. Ready, Audrey? Yeah. All right. Okay, okay. All right. I lost track of time there. It's kind of exciting when that happens. Yeah. So yeah. Okay. So we got we got time for some questions from you guys about your work and your creative process. I'll get these pages in order. And yeah, if anybody have any unique. We got a question. All right. Melania. Yay, Melania. How you doing? Hello. Hello, Audrey. Hello. Hello. How you doing, girl? Fine. Fine. First, I want to say thank you to Audrey and also to Amy that they are always so kind today, me asking questions. And when something went wrong, I wrote an email and they are there always to help and they with their smile. So it's so, so nice to have that also. So thank you to them. Yes, I second that. Yes. And then you know, Susan, Laurie, that I was with this workshop that it was with the notes and everything that ended and it was good to end and I learned but also it is good that it finished. And then I had these intros and out for the summer combat church to write for the kids and I did it and enjoyed it a lot and they love it. That was wonderful. But what is happening to me now is because I think that I was so in this rhythm of writing something, waiting for the answer and being a little bit like what's going to happen and then they love it. So now that I don't have all of that, I am feeling a little lost. Like I can't, I cannot focus, you know, I am so different but I have this weird because you know that I cannot write. I am happy and I show up to my work and I try to do it but I have a lot of ideas and I try to write them down and then I feel very enthusiastic about some of them but I begin, I say no and I change and then some kind of anxiety appears about okay but if I write this what I am going to do with this and I don't know how to do it. So now that I have this courage to write, I am beginning to feel this anxiety about okay but is this useful, what can I do, who can tell me what is this situation that I tend to be like this, that I really don't. But I would like to know, have any suggestions in order to focus and write, you know, with this freedom of not feeling that if I write I have to do something. I mean having a goal and having someone to show it to is a real gift and it's a real great thing. You can create that for yourself, if that's a model that works for you, you can create it for yourself. You can have your friends, maybe they're also writers, you know, you can create an online community where you meet once a week let's just say and you can give them some of your pages maybe if that could be helpful or just talk about your work if you don't want to share pages. That's super helpful. They can be, it is also helpful if they're also doing some kind of creative endeavor, you know, and they can talk about their work and so you guys can go around and just have a check-in. That's cool or they could read your work if they're actors maybe. That would be super helpful. You can give them the pages beforehand, they could read it and then they can read it out loud and you guys then could have a conversation about it. Okay. That would be really fun. I mean you just got out of taking a class, you just finished taking a class so I wouldn't necessarily suggest another class but if there's another class that you want to take, you know, that's also a good way to create some kind of a structure, finish line situation, goal situation or you can just do it yourself like say I want to write fill in the blank, I want to write this, I'm gonna write, you know, a page a day or whatever your your goal is and then by such and such a day I'm gonna be finished with it. I mean you can create those structures just for yourself and just to have the joy of, you know, it's like if you go, if you have a yoga practice or a running practice, you know, you go for a run, you know, five miles a day or whatever and it's like nobody has to see you, nobody has to, you know, it's just kind of fun. The doing of it is the greatest joy so that's also a way to to kind of create structure for yourself. Are any of those ways helpful? Yes they are, they are. Yes sometimes what happens to me that I feel this kind of feelings, I feel guilty that yes this kind of thing that why I should have, I should enjoy more or why having this anxiety if I have this blessing of being able to write, you know, but I feel I think that that's maybe come with me and my story, personal story and I want to change that because I really want to enjoy what I am doing without being present, you know, in what I am doing. Right, right, right, but I mean guilty like you feel bad about yourself. Yeah, I mean what yeah I think I mean it could be something that you're just going through but I would bet you, I bet your money that a lot of people feel that, you know, look I have all this time, I have, you know, the ability, I have a computer, I have a pen, I have a pen, so I have paper, you know, I've got an hour today why aren't I writing, you know, or why aren't I doing my thing. I think I think a lot of us go through feelings like that and or I have, you know, we can feel not always happy and cheerful when we should, you know, so just know that if, if you want to feel bad, you can about it, know that you're not alone. It's just, it's just a shit, you know, you just, you know, it's just let it, just let it go, you know, feel bad about it, feel good now. It's okay, you know, that is the artist's life. We go through these, these things as long as you find a way somehow every day to show up for yourself because I know you're showing up every day for other people. I bet you, I'm guessing. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So like it, like we were doing that put the mask on yourself before you put the mask on your child, you know what I mean? Put the mask on, you know, put the oxygen mask on yourself, take care of yourself, do a little, a little writing for yourself and if you feel badly because you're not as, you know, courageous and inspired as you were two weeks ago when you had an assignment or a class, that's perfectly all right. You don't need to be in a good mood to get your work done, you know. I mean, Joyce Carol Oates, you know, Joyce Carol Oates, she's written like a bazillion things. She's amazing. She's just like, all right, say, you know, she has a great quotation and I'm gonna muddle it, but she says sometimes, you know, when my soul is as thin as a playing card, you know, you know, when she's just not feeling it, who the fuck cares? This is not Joyce Carol Oates talking, this is me talking. Who the fuck cares? What kind of mood you in? It's not about your mood. You know, okay, does that make sense? So thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Melania. Thank you. Thanks, Melania. Okay. We actually don't have any questions quite yet. Oh, just kidding. Fat four popped up. That was amazing, you guys. Okay. Gavin, you're up. You hear me? Yes, hi. Okay, I just, I'm still learning. I just got a new computer. So I'm still learning how this thing's working today. So I got this thing running about myself. That was amazing. Well, I didn't have to have a whistle over it. That was amazing. But I have a question for copyrighting on that line. As to two things, copyrighting, I've written 28 plays. And I was saying by joining the Jeremiah's Yod, does it would be better to submit stuff to them? They have a copyright that way? Or should you have copyright through the Congress? Yeah, that's a good question, Gavin. I'm not a lawyer. So, you know what I'm saying? So take this with the, you know, brain salt. Yeah, sure, man. I would say send it through the copyright office, I would say, at the very least, you know, email it to yourself, create a paper trail whether virtual email it to yourself, put it in a manila envelope, your brown envelope, you know, mail it to yourself at the very least. So you can have a stamped, you know, I sent it to myself on this date, email it to yourself. That's also very effective. And then send it to the copyrights office. I know that it takes a while because there's a backlog and all that. But I don't know what the Dramatis Guild offers by way of securing copyrights. But if they do offer something, then sure, but I would send it to you. I was thinking about joining because it sounds like a good place to network and stuff out there. And I don't mind, I want to join it. And the black canvas, but I have dialogues coming at me from all different directions. They're coming out really well. So I'm just writing dialogues, I'm just trying to piece it together. Great, awesome. And typing it. And I got a new computer today. And it's like, I have one word, one in this, one of that, and none of formatting go together. And I'm like, Oh, but the dialogue I'm writing is very interesting, because I'm trying to capture the black American language best as I can. And yet keep it still keep my my kind of language in it too, as well. So I'm kind of like muddling it together. You know, it's sort of like poetic and Shakespearean and all this other stuff. And it's like a whole mix of things. So I'm just writing these things. And I finally got where I got certain scenes were a it's like I call the pebbles sitting in the past, where the play is going to go. And I know what's going to happen in there to play. So when I do write this play, how would you suggest me addressing trying to get a bunch of black Americans and say, Hey, look, I wrote this play by you guys. Well, not again, by you guys per se, but about us is addressing the black American culture and it was happening our society in this day and age. And I'm addressing very sensitive topics on all sides of the fence. So I'm gonna be stepping on everybody's toes. How was she just going about this trying to get people to cooperate and collaborate and having up a mind when you're doing because this gets in the way when I start raising these topics, like, what do you understand? I said, I don't understand. I'm trying to understand. And they don't get it. It is a tricky thing to get people to cooperate when you're stepping on their toes. Just you know, I'm saying, it's a tricky thing. So if you by your own admission are stepping on people's toes, and you're asking me, how do we get them to cooperate? How do we get them to cooperate? I don't know what to tell you. Quite honestly, the second thing that I would like to tell you just what you might already know, or maybe not, when you say black American culture and how black people speak, it's not a monolithic thing for every black person, you know, for every neighborhood group of folk, yeah, there is a very long way of doing it. Well, they have, I would not say they have their own way of doing it. But there is a great variety, I would say, there's like, there's a great complexity that it is not a monolithic kind of all in one basket kind of thing. Sorry. No, so I'm just I'm just I just want to hip you to that. I would, perhaps you have some good friends who are people of African American descent. And if you have good friends who are people of African American descent, maybe you can start there. And quite honestly, if you don't, you might want to make some. Because to walk around in people shoes, you got to get to know them. Really, no, no folks, you know, you got to get you got to get to know people. So you won't be just harvesting the experiences of people who are living this life and these skins day in, day out, and would might not be interested in what you have to say about them. And that's all I'm going to say about that right now. Thanks, SLP. We're going to move on to Eric. Eric, are you there? Hi. Yes, ma'am. What kind of hat do you have on? Oh, it's a hat. Actually, it's from a company in Brooklyn called Homo Co. Oh, Homo Co. Homo, Homo Co. Homo Co, like H-O-M-O and then space CO. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Got a little has a little moon on it. It has a little moon on it. Very cool. All right. All right. Looks, it's very, it's very handsome. Oh, thank you. Um, so my question is more of like a, it's not, it's a question of, does this, does this ever happen to you? Um, so I assume that a lot of other people have been having like insanely vivid dreams, like constantly throughout this whole kind of lockdown space. I've been, I usually have them, but I've been having them more. And they come in these weird forms of most of the time, um, plays or like me on a stage experiencing something and then like having a conversation with somebody afterwards about it. Um, and I'm, I know that's my brain just being like, this is an idea that we have, we should write it down. And is it, does, does this happen to you in a similar sense? Like, do you have a list somewhere of just like all these ideas that have come to you and you're like, maybe I'll write that someday and like, maybe I won't, but like, do you, because part of me is like, I should sit down one day and because I do remember most of them and just like, write this list that my brain clearly wants me to keep of all these ideas that I have. Or should I just be like, leave it in my brain as this like imagine, like just be like, that's my imagination, like letting it pass. That's a dream that I had once. No, the only thing you let pass is gas. You don't have to let your imagination pass. I mean, you can write like if there, if you have a dream and it's so vivid and exciting to you that you write it down, what's stopping you, brother? Right? I mean, what's stopping you? Like, right? So why not write it down? That's what I say. I mean, does it have to be a certain length or I mean, what are you waiting for? What do you I think it's the expectation kind of creeps in. You're like, write it down. You're like, oh, this could be a million things. And then that ideation of it being the possibility of a million things based on this one idea that you dreamed about or had or thought up. You're like, oh, it could be a poem. It could be a play. It could be a song. It could be a dance. And you're like, then you stop at that point because you're like, well, I don't know which version to make. So I guess it just pick one. Yeah. Put all those, put all those, those incarnations in a hat. Yeah, like that one. There you go. So you use your beautiful. Hat and you put like song play. What was the other one? The song play, huh? I need to dance. Yeah, play dance. What's another one that could it could be? I'm pretending I'm picking out of your hat. It's okay. Three play dance poem. Great. Okay. So you have either it's a song, play, dance or poem. Right. And you have your dream and you go, it's going to be a dance today. All right. Okay. Here we go. I'm going to do a dance. I'm going to make a dance. Right. And then it's really fun. And I would suggest also that when you put your hat on, you take the pieces of paper out of your hat. That could be fun just for me though, truthfully it might be. Right. You just wear them around. All my ideas literally took to my hat. Right. No, but you know what I'm saying? So that could be a fun activity every day. Like you have a cool dream. It's going to be a song today. Correct. Okay. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Someone's writing it's choose your own adventure. Yeah, there you go. Exactly. Exactly that. Okay. And you got the hat. I mean, most of them I have like, I'll wake up in the morning and I'll like, whoever I texted last before I went to sleep, I'll be like, how weird is it that I just had this dream and I'll write like a New York Times bestseller text message size to them. And they're just like, maybe you should write that whole thing down somewhere else that's not in our text thread. Maybe I need to go through my texts and pull them all back out like that. There you go. That don't that or you don't have, you just copy and paste. Yeah. Email to yourself. It's so easy. Right? Okay. Yeah. Okay. See how easy it is. It's so easy. Yeah. So easy. Thanks, Eric. Yeah. All right. Up next we've got Crystal. Oh yeah. I need her. I need her. I'm clicking my mouse being weird. There we go. There we go. I'm so sorry. Hi. Hey, Crystal. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you doing? Hi, Andrew. Happy to see you. Thank you. I'm very happy to see you as I've been every day that I've seen you. So I just finished a draft of one of the demagogue things and I applied the notes and it seems like a sucky first draft. So because I've been struggling so much with it already, I'm having trouble trying to revise it, to rewrite it, or to go in with the machete and the stallion. Just because I don't think I know what I'm trying to edit. I don't know what I'm trying to make better because I had so much trouble writing it the way it is now. Just having that what I have was such a trial and tribulation that it's kind of like shoot, like what do I, now what do I fix? Like what do I, how do I make this better? I don't know how to, I don't know what to do now with that, with this draft. That's okay, Crystal. How long has it been since you finished it? Because I do remember it was, it was a lot of work. It was a lot of hard work on your part. Yeah, I just finished it two days ago. Okay, goodie, goodie, goodie. Okay, so let it cool, right? It's not cool yet. It's still hot. It's like you're trying to cut the brownies and they haven't, they haven't cooled yet. They're getting all gummy around the four, you know what I mean? Yeah. We just made brownies yesterday and you have to wait. Oh, sit there and wait. Just taking the fork, wait, you know what I mean? So just wait, give it a, give it a, give it two weeks. Really? Sure, why not? Why not? Does that sound like too much? Only because it's always in my head. Good. Try to get it right, try to get it right. Good, so you have a, you have a notebook, anything. So this is, when I say let it cool for two weeks, I'm not saying you're not allowed to think about it for two weeks. I'm saying let it cool, right? Which means that you're going to basically allow another part of yourself, brain, heart, mind, body to work on it. You know, the back burner, right? Right? So you're going to allow that to work on it. So you have your notebook, you have some kind of notebook, right? It doesn't have to be a special notebook for that project. It could be if you want, but it doesn't have to be. And every time you think of something for that project, the demagogue project, you just write it down and make a big circle around it, you know, demagogue project. Oh, I have an idea. Great. But let it cool. Don't think about it, right? This is how a lot of solutions are developed. And I cannot think of the examples right now, but there was an example of someone, ooh, maybe it was the guy, the people, the people who discovered the double helix, maybe. Maybe I'm making this up. I'm not sure. But, you know, after lots and lots and lots of work, you know, study, you know, scientists in the laboratory, ah, they relaxed. And I think one guy was getting on a bus and boom, he had the idea. Maybe that's not the right example, but something like that. Creativity breakthroughs come, it's a combination of hard work and relaxing. Both of them. So you're cooling off, you're allowing your project to cool is part of that just relaxing the mind. You just want to relax. And you can work on your, you had the father chronicles. Yeah. Right. You can work on that. Maybe you can work on something else. Maybe you can just read some plays or, or read a novel or something, you know, just allow your mind to, all right. Yeah. Okay. Does that make sense? That makes total sense. Yeah. And as you come up with ideas, maybe they're going to be like Eric's ideas, dreams, you know, write them down, you know, or maybe they're just as you're walking the dog or hanging out with your kids or whatever, write your notes down, keep track of them. And then in two weeks, take another look at the script and reread it as if someone else wrote it. You read it as if someone else wrote it. Okay. Hey, this is your friend sent you a script to read. How are you going to help her? And you might not go in with the machete and the stallion, right, for the sort of discrimination that we talk about. Yeah. Right. You might go in like the constant gardener and gently weed. You know what I mean? Yeah. Beautiful gardener, Eve in the garden, she's pulling up the things that aren't necessary. And throwing them off to the side, you know, it doesn't have to be as dramatic as I always talk about it. It can be a gentle, slow activity, you know, humble, slow, mindful, okay? Yeah. Yeah. All right, but keep checking in and we'll check back in, you know, two weeks closer to the time. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Crystal. Thank you. Good to see you. Same here. Yeah, great to see you. All right, we got about 12 minutes left. And we're going to go to Kim. I clicked on mute, but it didn't work. Kim, are you there? I'm going to click it again. Let's see. Oh, I don't know what is going on today. They're huge. Okay. Yes. Kim, can you hear us? Can we hear you? It says you're unmuted, but it says you're unmuted. Can't hear you. Hmm. I'm going to try one more time to mute and unmute. You can see if that helps. Okay. I'm muted again and unmuted. If you click the button. Okay. Can we hear you now? Shoot. Hmm. I don't have a magical fix for this. I'm very sorry. Yeah. Can you chat your question again? Is that possible? Is it possible? Are you, is your volume up, Kim, on your computer? Yeah. I'm sorry. All right. We'll come back to you tomorrow. Okay. All right. Catherine, you are up next. Hey, y'all. This is great. It's only been my second week, so thank you so much. I feel like some of the things are percolating. Thanks, Catherine. I have a question about a play I'm working on with three main characters and the, I'm struggling a bit with one of the characters. I'm very clear on the other two why's and kind of figuring that out and expressing it. But with one of them, I feel a lot like I know the why's, but I'm having trouble articulating it. And within the structure, she's the character who is closest to my experience. It's sort of a bit more my point of view. And it's kind of intimate, sort of painful thing I'm working through with it. And so I wondered if you just have some suggestions. I've been doing some free writing, but I'm just like, I can't, not now I don't know how to articulate that. I'm not quite sure how to unlock it. How to say why. So I wondered if you could just talk a little bit about kind of when you get stuck when it's something, I suspect it's because I'm so close to it that I'm having trouble with it and just kind of how to push past that a bit. Uh-huh. So how is the free writing going? It's okay. It's helping. It's just sort of all over the place. Like it's very, I like in my bones know what I want, but I'm just, it's just kind of chaos right now with words and the other two are moving pretty well. Does she talk to you this character? I mean, free writing. Are you talking or is she talking? She's talking. I've tried to make it where it's not me. Like I'm trying to get a little distance with it because before it was really I, and I found that was I thought getting. Is she a child or an adult? She's an adult. Okay, look at February. Uh-huh. Would she, would you, would it help to go to another time period in her life to talk to her? Oh, yeah. Louise suggested something like that the other week, I think, kind of paraphrasing her suggestion, but you know, kind of what was, if she's just, you know, say she's 25, you know, what was she like when she was 15? You know, what does she have to say when she was 15? You know. And one of the things I'm dealing with is from when she was younger that's sort of driving her current behavior. So that, oh, that's a good idea. Thank you. Yeah. So that could super help. Yeah. That could, yeah. That could, yeah. That's good. Thank you very much. Sure, sure. See, try it and report back because I want to, I want to know how it goes. Okay. Thanks, Catherine. Thank y'all. No. You want to try Kim again? Yeah. Let's try Kim again. Let's try Kim again. Kim, we're coming back for you. I'm scrolling down. Kim. All right. Here we go. Kim, are you there? You seem to be unmuted. Good darn it, darn it, darn it. Did you try leaving and coming back? Oh, did she leave and come? Oh, maybe. She's here. I know. She's right here. Oh, yeah. That's a good thought. Maybe pull out your headphones. Is that okay, Catherine? All right, Catherine. Suggest to Kim? Uh-huh. Sure. That'll work. How's that going? Where is it? For some reason, you're not even on my screen at all. So I'm struggling. I saw her a second ago, but then now I don't see her anymore. I think that she has left. Okay, maybe she'll come back. Okay. All right. Hold on one second. I'm back to my ranging self. Okay. We've got about seven minutes left. And we're going to go to Lin. Okay. Hey, Lin. Hey, kid. Hey. Hey. Um, a question. I'm really a disorganized person and I've been, I have my writing practice now for an hour. I started with 20 minutes. Well, I have my timer. The timer really helps. You know, sometimes I actually look at the timer and go, oh, God, it's, I got 10 more minutes to do this. Yeah, but, um, I'm really disorganized. I have pages, hundreds of pieces of paper all over the place, writing, I've done this and that. So I wondered if you just had a little suggestion about organization, which would really help me a lot. Oh, how I love organization. Oh, brilliant one. Because it involves going virtually now to, you know, staples or Amazon, I mean, not Amazon, I know they're evil, but go to staples and you can go online and oh, why, why you can purchase, you know, folders of different colors. I have so many of these. And you know what, if you get plastic ones, they'll withstand like, you know, ripping and shit when you get angry, or when your child or friend spills wine on your folder and you label them with the name of your project in a post-it so that when you're done, you can rip it off and stick on another one. Folders. Also, clips. Oh my goodness. Clips are amazing. I love binder clips. They also have those things called brads and we love Brad because we love Brad Pitt because he's really very handsome. But these binder clips are so amazing because look how easy it's like commitment free, really, right? You don't have to like stick something in all day. You could just do this, right? This is a bit fantastic. They also come in silver, which makes me happy. It's important to get stationary supplies that make you happy. Look, pink and orange makes me happy. Silver makes me happy. I like printing things out. If you like printing things out, get some clips. Also, look, a notebook. It has a spiral thing. So all your broken pieces stay. Oh my goodness. And of course, remember this is organizing your time. Also, I have, look, a basket. I carry this basket around the house because I got to keep my shit together. So I'm walking around. I'm now in this rented house in quarantine, right? Also, look, another notebook with notes about this project. Go to town. Go to Staples. Okay. And so the organization has to do with files and putting things. Sam, Sam, and I'm trying to write. A long time ago, you said, get a star. Get stars or, you know, those things. And I would put them for a while on my stuff. I got stars and put them on my stuff. But so what you're saying is each thing you're writing, but I'm basically working on the same thing, but sort of thinking about each character more deeply. Each character can have a folder. Just characters with their names. Each character folder, perfect. And if you enjoy colorful things, get folders that are colorful. Because then when you look at it, it's going to make you happy. That's the idea. So you're not going to get all like, if you hate the color, you know, green, you know, OD Army green, you know, get something that's going to make you go, how's that? Sure, sure. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Okay. And have fun. It's a fun thing to do. Okay. You know, getting your shit together is fun. Oh, my shit. It's so, somehow the quarantine makes you more disorganized than you are. You know, no, it doesn't. Oh, no, baby. I get to sit around the house all day and like put things in folders. Are you kidding? Thank you. Love that segment. I was so pleased. Thank you. We've got about a minute left. Um, we actually don't have any questions. No, that was just the tip of the iceberg, baby. I got clipboards for music because, you know, when you do a lot of, when you do anything or a lot of things, you have to have systems in place that really help you. You know, I, you know, I started, I got back into playing the violin this summer. I have a clipboard with the music on, you know, things like that just help you even memory. They say tricks to remember things. You've heard of the memory palace to create a palace, rooms, a house in your mind, where to put things. Where to put things is, is, um, really, really helpful to help, you know, it helps you get your work done. Yeah. Staying organized in some kind of fashion. I could go on, but I wouldn't have a whole, a whole hour at least. It's just like, we actually have one more question. Okay. Let's do it. Erica, it's all you. Hi everyone. Hi Susan, Lori. I got the timer. The timer is great. I have some of the same things that other people here have been talking about. Organization is an issue. Also for me, I'm so subject to what people think of, of what I'm doing. So I really crave to talk about it. But then if they say something critical, I'm completely deflated. And then if they say something good, then I'm so like proud that I don't do anything for days. And so it's equal. It's sort of like just keeping it up. I mean, even as I was forming the question, I'm like, why am I asking this? I know what the answer is. Just keep coming and keep doing it. But just, um, and what you said the other day about the practice of like, we all, you know, you make time to do yoga, you make time to run. Um, you have to sort of feed your muse and why is that thing like it's kind of at the end of the list so often, I guess, just like the momentum and then also the fact that we're in this, uh, kind of, uh, really anxious time that at the same time I feel like, oh my God, this is such an opportunity, I have fewer places I have to be why am I not cranking it out. So I have the beginning and the end of my novel because it's, um, I'm trying to write a, um, I am writing, um, sort of, um, my armature is that it's a thriller because there you have the plot, um, like that way I can put all my stories and everything, I can hang it on something because I need the structure, but, um, it's, and I, those are the kind of things I like to watch on TV and movies or whatever. But the middle, like how is it getting there and all the things you have to put there is just takes that kind of brain that actually I'm not as suited to as I would like to be. It's the organized brain, whoever was saying just a minute ago, um, and, and so just the focus. I guess even this question is showing my issues with focus. So, um, I don't even know if that's a question. But how, you know, what else is there to say? How can we stay focused? How can we stay focused? Yeah, we, we, we use our tools, basically, you know what I mean? Or we, we, we discover what our tools might be. You know, this is, this timer is a, is a focusing tool. If you're writing a novel, um, three by five index cards, another reason to go online and go to Staples. There you go. Ha ha. There you go. So you've got it. So you can write beats, a beat sheet for your novel on three by five index cards. You can also, since you say those are the kinds of novels you like, you can also maybe, um, take a pause for three days, maybe, or slow down on your writing and spend some time reading a novel that is in the style of what you might like to write. And take notes on how she, he, or they architect the beginning, the middle and the end. That's a fun thing to do too, you know. And it's so hard because you get sucked into the story every time and every time I'm like resolved to pay attention to the structure and how it's done and then like, you know, you lose yourself in the story and they have to go back, oh wait, what was that again? Erica, now you're a professional. I know. And a professional does not get sucked, a professional picks up a novel in order to study the structure. She might get sucked into the structure, but she remembers because she has in her other hand her three by five index cards and why am I holding these is to jot down just the chapters. In this chapter, this happens. In this chapter, this happens. If you get sucked in, you remember right, right, I didn't jot down what happens in that chapter. You see what I mean? I mean, that's what it means to be a professional. Like, not a professional meaning, getting paid a certain amount, but a professional meaning you're an artist creating something. When a painter goes to a museum, she admires the Romare Bearden, but she also goes, all right, what's he doing here? You know, because I want to learn. I don't just want to go hurrah, I want to learn from that. So, because she's a pro. Okay, because she's an artist. This is what we do. Okay, and artist also like, Amy Weiss said, you know, an artist doesn't look away. When you pass roadkill, the artist stops the car and looks. That's in my novel. Yeah, well, there you go. I'm reading your mind already. That's scary. It's a really good place to end. It's three of four. Unbelievable. Thank you, SLP. You are the bomb as always. I'm an organized bomb. Yes. Yes. Perfect. The best kind of bomb. We'll see you all again tomorrow. As a reminder, you can sign up on public theater website or how arounds website by 3pm Eastern every single day. And I will send you a link between three and 430pm. There may be a password tomorrow. Yeah. We'll make sure that if there's a password that you have it. That's all. It should be howl around, but we are moving to a password protected system. So yes, keep an eye out for it. Thanks, Thea. Thank you guys.